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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23420983">Third Base!</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Memories_of_the_Shadows/pseuds/Memories_of_the_Shadows'>Memories_of_the_Shadows</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hannibal (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bad Jokes, Cannibalism Puns, Dark Will Graham, Dinner, Hannibal Lecter is a Cannibal, Implied/Referenced Murder, M/M, Will Graham Knows, Will Graham Loves Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham is a Cannibal, mentioned - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 09:29:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,290</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23420983</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Memories_of_the_Shadows/pseuds/Memories_of_the_Shadows</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Will would really just like to eat in peace for once.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>234</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Third Base!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title is from "Who's on First" by Abbott and Costello.  Also I know nothing about baseball, not a bit of this story has anything to do with baseball, I just really like this skit.</p>
<p>I do not consent to my work being hosted on any unofficial apps, especially any with ad revenue and subscription services, or any website other than ao3 unless I personally cross-posted a work.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Do you really have to do that while I’m eating?” Will asks, fork poised halfway to his lips, nose crinkled almost adorably in some kind of ill humor.  Nothing to do with Hannibal’s cooking, of course, as his Will has already eaten half of it amid many compliments.  It’s a confusing statement.</p>
<p>“Do what, might I ask?”  Hannibal pats at his mouth with a napkin.  This looks to be a far longer conversation than one should really be having at dinner, but his dear Will is still learning the finer minutia of fine manners.</p>
<p>Will snorts inelegantly, pointing his thankfully empty fork slightly for emphasis.  Will is <i>very</i> lucky Hannibal simply finds his working class manners charming rather than insulting.  Hannibal raises an eyebrow in question.  Will swallows and puts down his utensils, mimicking Hannibal’s earlier actions with his own napkin, a move that makes something unfamiliar and warm grow in his chest.  “You know ‘what’, you do it entirely on purpose,” Will says, distracting Hannibal from his appreciation.</p>
<p>“You will have to enlighten me, Will,” Hannibal’s manners have been impeccable since childhood, at least after his liberation from the orphanage and Robert’s careful polish of them.  He even refrains from talking about things that have proven to cause his Will some form of distress at the table.  Unless Will has developed a new neurosis regarding something very obscure, Hannibal simply cannot think of what might have caused such an outburst.</p>
<p>“Oh, god, you don’t even realize it anymore.  How the fuck haven’t you been caught yet,” Will rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands, and therefore cannot see the way Hannibal has stiffened and gripped his knife.  He mourns the loss of his darling Will already, but Will has not yet gone through his grand becoming, not quite escaped the chrysalis society forced him into.  There’s no predicting his reaction.  “The puns, Hannibal, the fucking puns.  How am I supposed to eat with you over there making corny little jokes about murder and cannibalism?”</p>
<p>Hannibal blinks.  Though he can’t be sure, it almost sounds like Will is more upset about his humor--which no one has ever truly appreciated, or, at least, survived appreciating--than the unwitting engagement in cannibalism.  It’s a sticking point for so many, even those for whom Hannibal aided in their becoming.</p>
<p>Though, maybe not so unwitting, given how Will seems to <i>know</i>.</p>
<p>The thought steals Hannibal’s breath away.</p>
<p>“Puns are the highest form of humor,” he hears himself saying.  Will barks out a derisive laugh and glares at Hannibal.  It makes him want to sink under his Will’s skin and melt into the man until no one can tell where one of them begins and the other ends.</p>
<p>“The highest?  Really Hannibal?  Nothing about the murder, the cannibalism, oh no, you’re just insulted that I questioned your sense of humor.”  Will rolls his eyes and picks up his fork again, going back to his meal.  Hannibal still can’t find it in himself to put down the knife, even with yet more proof that Will is anything but unwitting and unwilling.</p>
<p>Perhaps Will is correct about the insult given.</p>
<p>“Humor is ever an exclusionary practice, inherited through language, culture, and place.  Only those with a complete mastery of language, sincere knowledge of those he is speaking to, can create puns that are understandable: a display of superiority, casual and common amongst those fluent but unintelligible to those not.”  He sounds petulant even to himself, no matter how true it is.</p>
<p>“Uh-huh.”  Will clears his plate, taking it to the kitchen to clean it immediately.  At least his Will sounds amused at Hannibal’s minor upset, how cruel.</p>
<p>“You’re taking this much better than I thought you would,” he calls from the kitchen.  Hannibal fingers his knife as he listens to the homey sounds of water running and Will humming.</p>
<p>His Will eyes the knife in Hannibal’s hand when he comes back and snorts.  “Except for that, I guess.”</p>
<p>“Will you be telling someone?  Uncle Jack perhaps?”  Hannibal doesn’t think he will, not his Will who just finished eating a particularly and aggressively unhelpful store owner’s tongue, but it’s best to ask and make sure.</p>
<p>Will gives Hannibal a look, the type of one that Hannibal has seen him give his students when they ask questions that have obvious and already revealed answers.  “Hannibal, if I tell Jack that he’s eaten only you know how many people while you crack terribly obvious puns to his face, he’s going to have an aneurysm.  And then someone less tunnel visioned will take over, someone who might actually catch you.”</p>
<p>Hannibal inclines his head at Will’s assessment, not in agreement, just acknowledgement.  His grip on the knife loosens nonetheless.  “Since when?”  Clearly it has been some time, longer than Hannibal would have guessed that Will would keep silent about it, given his extreme, not entirely unfounded, fear.</p>
<p>He shrugs, Will smiling a small, private little crook of his mouth and shatters any expectation Hannibal has left of him.  “Since I first met you.  I make it a habit to read new people, get a surface impression.  All it takes is some eye contact.  People don’t even notice.  You didn’t.  And by the time Jack tried to point me at the Ripper, at <i>you</i>… well, you were right about being interesting.”</p>
<p>Oh, his clever, <i>darling</i> Will.  “All this time?”  Hannibal is sure he sounds wondering, to have been so <i>seen</i> by Will without even knowing it, even the gift he made of that Boyle girl truly appreciated in that moment rather than later or never as he had thought at that time: it is an awe-inspiring feeling, more akin to the perfection of the opera than dinner at home.  He can feel his eyes prickle with recognition of the depth of his darling Will’s monstrous beauty laid bare before him.</p>
<p>Abruptly, he wishes they had some prey to take down, together, a feast in every sense of the word.</p>
<p>Will’s eyes are affectionate storm clouds when Hannibal meets them--such a rare gift, he should have realized from that very beginning that something was different about it--and his smile hasn’t faded in the least, only now Hannibal understands the joke.  “All this time, Hannibal.  All those terrible jokes and elaborate displays, that I couldn’t react to, not the way I wanted.  You, peacocking around, and not a single one of the sheep recognize your plumage.”</p>
<p>“But you did.”  His daring Will, making sustained eye contact with Hannibal, all while explaining why he <i>doesn’t</i>; Hannibal feels as blind as the pigs around them, only newly opened to the array of possibilities surrounding him.</p>
<p>“I did.”  Will’s fingers are calloused from hard work, very unlike Hannibal’s which bear only slight markings of time and cuts from rarely slipped knives and scalpels, but Hannibal still feels like Will’s hands are more lovelier than even <i>he</i> can comprehend, the way they slide over his with something Hannibal can only describe as love.  “You are the <i>worst</i>,” Will says, heavy with a sigh that is full of affection and knowledge.</p>
<p>Hannibal feels himself smile, a truer one than he has in a long time, and full of his own knowledge, own <i>love</i>, says, “nevertheless, you love me.”</p>
<p>His Will sighs again, acting so put upon but his smile belies the act.  Will threads their fingers tighter.  “Yeah, I do.  Just please, let me eat in peace for once.”</p>
<p>Whatever his Will wants, Hannibal is ready to promise him at this moment.  Still, that habit may be more difficult to break than Hannibal is able to say.  Perhaps he’ll start small.  Another dinner with his Will, just the two of them.</p>
<p>And no puns.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wrote this because my so has a terrible sense of humor and so does Hannibal.  Also, special mention goes out to the classic comedy set "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTcRRaXV-fg">Who's On First</a>" by Abbott and Costello, which one of my teachers--who taught English as a Second Language--would use as a final exam of sorts.</p>
<p>If you'd like, come visit me on <a href="https://sachinighte.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a>!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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